The purpose of this core is to provide comprehensive and state-of-the-art technologies for analyzing[unreadable] metabolic function of pancreatic islets to all three of the research projects in the PPG. The core will be[unreadable] comprised of two units with distinct expertise, but unified goals, operating at Duke and UT[unreadable] Southwestern Medical Center (UTSWMC), respectively. The Duke component of the core consists of a[unreadable] mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolic profiling laboratory resident in the Sarah W. Stedman[unreadable] Nutrition and Metabolism Center. This facility currently deploys GC/MS and MS/MS to measure 90[unreadable] "targeted" intermediary metabolites of known identity in 4 classes in tissue extracts and bodily fluids.[unreadable] These capabilities for static metabolic profiling are strongly complemented by the UTSWMC[unreadable] component of the core, which provides NMR-based analysis of metabolic flux via stable[unreadable] isotope/"mass isotopomer" technology. The combined application of the methods resident in the MS[unreadable] and NMR laboratories will yield metabolic "fingerprints" of islets in different functional states, and in[unreadable] response to genetic or other kinds of manipulations performed by each of the project teams. Each of[unreadable] the technologies will also play an important role in validating the safety and efficacy of new islet[unreadable] imaging and transcriptional activator technologies being developed in Projects 2 and 3, respectively.[unreadable] The two components of this core have the potential to provide extraordinary depth and detail in[unreadable] metabolic analysis of islets, leading potentially to new understanding of how islets fail in type 2[unreadable] diabetes.